Warhawk's Sacrifice - Ch. 2 - Simple Problems - Alpha (Patreon)

Seb sat still and allowed his thumping heart to settle. The deep hum of the ship’s FTL drive calmed him, but the lingering smell of burnt plastic and metal kept him on edge. They’d escaped for now, but he knew he’d have to deal with the cost.

Outside of the infrequent sparks that shot out of the nearby blown panels and red hue that separated him from the ship’s T-gauss batteries, the entire floor was devoid of any light. He wasn’t sure how much he’d damaged the ship’s electrical infrastructure after boosting the ship’s shields. However, he’d hoped it wasn’t too costly.

Seb felt Iris scratching on the back of his mind, but he ignored it for now. He didn’t have time to deal with her. The ship needed fixing and she wasn’t going to fix herself.

The captain pushed himself up to his feet and spoke aloud. “Syn, can you hear me?” The virtual intelligence’s response was full of static and distortion, completely ineligible. He spoke again. “I can’t hear you. Give me a second.” Seb tapped on the side of his head, triggering his suit to fully enclose his helmet and allowing him to speak through his its comm. “Try now.”

“I read you, Captain,” Syn said. “Can you hear me?”

“I can. The speakers on the maintenance floor are fried. Is everyone else all right?”

“Vi, Iris, and Sister Mischa are all on the bridge and are okay. Nalla is observing Francisca in one of the spare bedrooms. Both Eni and Zara are quite upset. Most likely from being woken up from the blaster fire and shifts in gravity.”

“Well, it’s not like we planned to have the Reborn start shooting at us, so they’re just going to have to get over it. How’s the Amnesty?”

“The damage is isolated to the maintenance level and our primary weapon. I detect several tripped circuit breakers, unresponsive terminals, and battery two in the T-Gauss is destroyed. I’m also not able to reach certain power paths, indicative of melted or fried wiring. It’s possible the ship’s internal converter is also damaged, but it is responsive.”

“Makes sense. Things didn’t go real bad until the FTL core fired. The amperage draw was probably too high paired with the additional load I was putting on the system with the power from the T-gauss batteries… How’s the server room?”

“I preemptively powered everything down except for my own processing stack. The surge protectors and battery backups prevented any damage.”

“Thanks. She would have kicked my ass if that damaged any of her equipment.”

“Indeed, or tried to bite it,” Syn teased.

“Knowing her, probably both,” Seb said, chuckling. “Are the shields still active?”

“They are but they aren’t going above forty-three percent.”

Seb’s smile vanished. “Fuck, that’s not good. Run a diagnostic on the ship’s core batteries. Make sure everything is within spec and there are no spikes. If they are, then it’s likely I damaged the converter by overcharging the shields.”

“Running diagnostic now, Captain. ETA to completion, sixty seconds.”

While Seb waited for the diagnostic to complete, he swapped his helmet’s Heads-Up-Display to night vision. He walked down the hall, following the slithering power cable until he reached the end wall. The terminal bar did not produce a holographic interface when he approached, telling Seb it either didn’t have power or it was blown.

When he bent down and looked at the end of the cable, he could see the wall was scorched black and the plastic end was melted. While his helmet filtered any lingering smells, he could see the gray smoke that lingered around it.

It kept us alive, he thought. But looking back, if the shields hadn’t overcharged, it could have fried them completely and left us dead in the water. It was our only chance to escape, though. No sense worrying about it now. I just need to tackle one problem at a time.

“Captain, the diagnosis is complete,” Syn said.

Seb stood and headed for the maintenance closet. “Give me good news.”

“The batteries’ diagnostic came back with no errors reported and reads as healthy.”

“Thank the Maker. It’s got to be the converter, then. That’s easier to stomach than the core batteries being bad. Let’s just hope Timura Outpost has a suitable replacement.”

“I’ll add that to an acquisition list for when we arrive.”

“Thanks, Syn. Send that to my WICI. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more that we’ll need after I’m done fixing things.”

An exclamation icon appeared on Seb’s HUD showing he’d received a new message. “Done, Captain. Let me know if there’s anything else you need assistance with.”

“Will do.”

Seb walked into one of the maintenance closet that was more office than a closet. It was Seb’s own personal space, just like Eni had her server room and Nalla had her medical office. Several human-sized toolboxes stood bolted to the floor and biometrically locked. They were full of organized sockets, electronic screwdrivers, and drill bits.

Small organized drawers held every sized screw, bolt, and washer that the Amnesty was built with. Along the far wall were magnetic strips that held hand tools ranging from drills, laser cutters, and wire splicers. They held everything he needed to maintain the ship.

Standing next to the far back wall stood a clear metal workspace that gave room for Seb to work. Several universal tools hung from ceiling bungees, allowing Seb to reach up and grab what he needed instantly. He even had a small refrigerator, freezer, and deployable cot for the nights that he was going to be working late. Today was going to be another one of those days.

Before he began, Seb double checked that he had enough provisions down here to last him a few days. Once he started, he didn’t want to be bothered until he fixed everything he could. While most of it was prepackaged meals in a pouch, he used the idea as motivation to get the work done. He told himself he didn’t deserve the comforts of Nalla’s cooking, a shower, and sleeping in his own bed until everything was repaired.

Seb walked to the nearby wall and retrieved his equipment harness that hung from a metal hook. After slipping it over his suit, he grabbed all the equipment he assumed he needed and clipped them on the carabiners that hung from the harness. When he ran out of clips, he activated a hovercart that sat idle on the ground, giving him a floating, working surface that he could push around and carry equipment.

Seb started his work by taking out his Laser projected Electronic Wire Tester. With a click of the handheld device, green lasers emanated out of the front glass circle, creating a grid pattern that projected on the wall. Any wires hidden behind the metal lit up an orange color. Any live wires illuminated a lime-green color.

Seb walked the entire length of the maintenance area, taking notes on his WICI on all the wiring that needed to be replaced. Thankfully, his previous planning left him with boxes of bundles in storage. There was enough to redo half the ship. When he completed his walk, he stopped by the floor’s breaker panels to check on their condition.

Seb found several completely cooked, but most were tripped and still functional. He added another hour's worth of work to his docket. Before he left, he tripped all the circuits that weren’t needed for primary functions like the maintenance floor’s life support system and the FTL core.

After he finished with the panels, he did another pass down maintenance, only this time searching for larger items that needed to be replaced: blown terminals, shorted speakers, and shattered lights. The really large equipment, like the T-gauss battery and the ship converter, were things he added as a stage three repair. Those were things he was going to have to wait to fix until they docked at their next stop.

“Hey, Syn, do you read?” Seb asked.

“I’m here, Captain,” his companion said.

“I’m going to start on repairs. Please lock the doors to the maintenance floor including the elevator. I don’t want to be disturbed at all. Only if it’s an emergency, and if they tell you it’s an emergency, then ask them what it is. You can use your best judgment if it warrants reaching out.”

“Affirmative, Captain. Please let me know if there’s anything I can assist you with.”

“I’m wishing you had a drone right now.”

Syn’s smile radiated through her voice. “Are you wishing for us to continue our lessons?”

“Not what I was thinking,” Seb said with a short laugh. “But it’s definitely something I’m looking forward to.”

“As am I, Captain.”

With a chip in his step, Seb grabbed some additional supplies and got to work. Over the next few days, he kept his head down, tackling one problem at a time. The work was long and arduous. However, Seb didn’t mind it. In fact, he enjoyed it.

Each problem was simple. A burnt cable meant a new‌ run, crimping new ends, and plugging it in. A blown terminal was easily replaced with just a few bolts, connecting a few wires, and installing the latest firmware.

They were nothing like the complexities of intergalactic politics, or the implications of harboring the last member of an ancient civilization with the theoretical power to stop an impending invasion. Each repair filled him with a sense of purpose. When he grew tired, he power-napped on the cot. When he grew hungry, he squeezed down a nutrition tube.

After dumping the last bits of trash from his work, he made his way back down the hall and reactivated the breakers. He smiled as the light illuminated down the hall. With a tap on the side of his helmet, Seb’s suit pulled off the faceplate and slid back the shell. When the process completed, he spoke into the hall.

“Syn, I’m testing the speaker system. Do you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, Captain.”

Seb tightened his fist and pulled it to his chest. “Yes! All right, can you do a scan on this level and check for any issues? Ignore T-Gauss battery two and the Amnesty’s electrical converter.” He tapped on the floor as he waited for Syn’s response, expecting the worst but hoping for the best.

“All fixtures, lights, and terminals are responsive, Captain. All previous power routes are active and show no signs of wear.”

Seb slumped back into the wall and smiled. “Thanks Syn. Please unlock the doors for maintenance.”

“This has been completed, Captain.”

“Thank you. How far until we reach our destination?”

“Barring any unforeseen obstructions, we will reach Timora Station in forty-nine hours. I also want to inform you that Eni and Zara wish to speak with you as soon as you are available.”

“I’m sure they do. Where are they?”

“Zara is in your quarters. Eni is downstairs in the server room.”

Seb tilted his head at the previous sentence. He wasn’t sure why Zara would be in his room, however; he was keen to find out. As he pushed the hovercart full of trash to the elevator, he leaned back against the far wall.

His body ached and smelled. He’d been going almost nonstop since he’d started and the moment he slowed down, his exhaustion caught up with him. The longing for a taste of Nalla’s cooking, a stiff drink, and a warm shower kept him mobile.

As the elevator descended, he made an additional request. “Hey Syn, is Nalla up?”

“She is Captain.”

“Would you mind asking her if she has the time, if she can make me something to eat and meet me up in my quarters?”

“Of course, Captain.” Before the elevator reached the bottom level, Syn spoke once more. “Nalla confirmed she will meet you in your cabin in thirty minutes.”

“Perfect. Thanks, Syn.”

“You’re welcome, Captain.”

Once the doors opened, Seb could hear the sounds of grunts and shouts. When he pushed the cart out into the cargo bay, he found Sister Mischa training. The towering woman swung her flaming power sword overhead, illuminating the entire room in a bright orange.

She sprinted from side to side, moving in her bulky armor with astonishing speed. The blue-green color of her armor showed bits of silver along the battle skirt and knee pads from the constant wear. Her twin red horns protruded through her hooded helmet, striking fear in the heart of her enemies as they gazed into the red visor that was in the shape of a sparkling star.

Seb continued toward the cargo bay door, only stopping once he reached the other garbage they had stacked. He dumped all the equipment near the other destroyed shelving, twisted operating table, and the broken healing tank.

Once he finished, Seb waited until she saw him and stopped, extinguishing the flame of her powersword with the push of a button. She clasped it on her back with a magnetic thud and approached the captain. With a pressurized hiss, she pulled off her helmet's front faceplate, revealing her golden eyes and sweat-matted white hair.

“Doing a bit of training?” Seb asked.

“No… I’m banishing the galactic spirits,” Mischa said with a smug grin.

“In full armor? Hopefully, you got them all. The last thing I need is some ghost peeping at me while I’m in the shower.”

Micha rolled her eyes and pushed Seb’s shoulder. “I train how I expect to fight.”

“You realize we have a full gym you can use.”

“Yes. I’ve taken advantage of it. However, it’s too crowded to swing my blade without me causing damage.”

“I appreciate your consideration.”

“Where have you been? I haven’t seen you for a few days. Were you repairing the ship that whole time?”

“Yeah, I locked myself on the maintenance level,” Seb said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. “Our escape from Rilon V left the ship in a bad state. I needed complete focus to get her as fixed up as I could.”

Mischa’s smile faded. “The ship’s in good health, right?”

“Oh yeah, she’s not going to blow or anything like that. It was uh… small electrical issues that needed to be addressed. Just a power surge.”

“Okay… so what happened at Rilon V? Is what Vi told me true? They opened fire on us upon arrival?”

“In short, yeah. They claimed to be acting on behalf of the GRC. We were told to power down and give up Iris, calling her classified material or something like that. When we didn’t comply, they tried forcing us the hard way. Vi managed to fly us out of there. The electrical issue was from me overcharging our shields so we could make it.”

Mischa nodded slowly. “So we’re in the GRC’s crosshairs. That’s… not good.”

“No, it’s not,” Seb said, shaking his head. “We’re heading into the galactic core to buy us some time. We need supplies to fix the ship. Iris needs clothes. We need to purchase supplies.”

“What of your sepix employer? Do you think she’ll be a problem?”

“Zara?” Seb asked, twisting his lips. “Honestly… I don’t know.”

Mischa took a step forward, looming over Seb, her voice cold and direct. “I need you to tell me that if she were to order you to hand over Iris, you’d refuse.”

Seb pinched his eyes together and starred unblinkingly. “I’d refuse.”

Sister Mischa’s eyes bounced between his own, looking for any signs of a fault. Satisfied, she slowly nodded. “Things are starting to get heated. Normally, I’d say this is where we should split. However, I doubt Iris would allow us to.”

“Do you think the church could protect her?”

“Yes,” Sister Mischa said without hesitation. “We have convents located in unclaimed space. We could hide her there. It… would not be an easy life for her.”

“That’s good to know as a backup plan. If things get too messy, we may need the church’s protection.”

“If the GRC wants her bad enough, though. I don’t even think the church could protect her. All the Sisters and Holy Mothers would gladly give our lives for her. However, our numbers are only a few thousand. The GRC has trillions of soldiers, ships, and resources.”

“Yeah… I know… We’ll need to come up with a way to keep her safe.”

“I will pray and seek guidance,” Sister Mischa said, setting an arm on Seb’s shoulder. “And you should seek a shower.”

Seb smiled. “I think that goes for the both of us.”

The two shared a laugh before splitting. While the Sister of Nimora headed for the elevator, the captain continued down the hall, headed for Eni’s room. He passed the destroyed medical office that looked like a grenade exploded in it. The privacy glass was missing and the frame of the office bowed outward. A stern reminder of the power Iris held.

As Seb approached Eni’s room, thumping music with a heavy bass track vibrated the hall floors. He slammed his fist onto the door, knowing full well she couldn’t hear him. After a few seconds, when she didn’t respond, Seb opened the door and walked in.

In the far back corner room, lines of code scrolled through her dozen screens as if her program was searching for something. Seb recognized some of the symbols from the cave they’d originally found his glove in and assumed it was part of the data they had recovered. He expected to see Eni sitting at her desk, but when he looked around, she was nowhere to be seen.

He walked deeper into the room and passed the orange couches and chairs. When he looked toward the rows of server racks, he could see several servers pulled outward with the chassis. It wasn’t until he almost reached the other side of the room that he saw the small purple-skinned beauty bent over on a stool looking into one of her servers. A nefarious grin formed on Seb’s face as he readied his hand for her plump bottom.

Swinging his hand back, Seb swung forward, connecting his hand on her lower cheeks. She howled and fell backward, allowing Seb to catch her in her arms. At first she scowled, slowly rubbing her bottom until she looked up at him with her green and blue eyes. She gave him a toothy smile with her sharp, pointed teeth.

Eni yanked on his suit’s collar, pulling Seb into a twisting tango with her tongue. Even though he was exhausted, he always had enough energy to embrace each of his women. After a handful of seconds sucking on each other's lips, Eni pulled away, leaving a strand of saliva connecting to both of their mouths.

Eni tapped on her wrist-mounted WICI, and the music stopped. Her smile faded after she leaned upward and sniffed around his neck. She leaned back and frowned. “You stink.”

“Good to see you too,” Seb said, chuckling.

“Well, you do!”

“Yeah, not showering for a few days will do that to you. Did Syn and Vi tell you what happened?”

“Yeah… sounds like we are wanted by every GRC member? It will be interesting to see what the bounty is on your head after we drop out of FTL.”

“Wanna take a bet?”

Eni’s eyes lit up. “Yeah… but we’re not betting credits…”

“Oh?” Seb asked, knowing full well where this was going.

“Nope. If you win, you get to choose what we do in the bedroom. If I win, I get to choose.”

Seb squinted down at Eni's smug grin. Something about her smile told him she already had something in mind. While he’d enjoyed their sexcapades until that point, he still felt hesitant in responding immediately. However, his curiosity had him by the throat.

“Fine…,” Seb said. “But it better not be anything I won’t like.”

Eni leaned and pulled down on his collar, whispering into his ear. “Oh, don’t worry, I know you’ll love it.” Eni let out an evil giggle as she leaned back in Seb’s arms. “You know, I could get used to this.”

“Don’t get any bright ideas. You already sleep on my chest at night. I’m not going to start carrying you around like a baby.”

Eni playfully slapped Seb on the chest. “Ugh. You’re no fun. Did you manage to get everything fixed on the ship, by the way?”

“Just about. The T-gauss is out of commission until I get a replacement battery, and shields are low until I can get a replacement converter. Just got that and the medical office to take care of. I’ll have to check the exterior of the ship to see if any bolts got through the shields, but if they did their job, we should be fine. What about in here? I saw some of your servers were pulled out. Is everything okay? Syn told me that this room didn’t get damaged.”

“The surge protectors did their jobs. Nothing got fried, thankfully. I’m just trying to squeeze some juice out of the hardware by overclocking the processors.”

“Any luck?”

Eni shrugged. “Not really. I don’t have sufficient cooling to squeeze anymore out of them unless I get creative with liquid nitrogen and a shit ton of copper. Maybe some orlindrian ice would do the trick…”

“I don’t think we have any of that lying around.”

“It’s better for me to wait until we get to our next stop. I’ll plan on getting some additional hardware. I’ve got a few open sockets on some motherboards to use. Otherwise, I’d have to rebuild the servers completely, which is just going to stall things longer.”

“How’s the dictionary coming, by the way?”

Eni tapped Seb on the chest as her eyes lit up. “Put me down and I’ll show you!”

Seb set Eni on her feet and followed the small, white-haired pracovi to her terminals. She climbed into her chair and tapped on her keyboard, increasing the size of a window on the screen. After she finished, she spun in her chair and pointed up at the display.

“While you were busy doing your thing, Syn and I borrowed Iris.”

Seb crossed his arms and squinted. “What do you mean borrowed?”

“I… may have bribed her with a shit ton of candy.”

Seb snorted and shook his head. “You know how that sounds right.”

“Horrible… I know. But we made so much progress! We loaded her up in my Dream Theater, which I didn’t know would work given it’s not programmed for nakai minds. However, since you could speak with her, I used the human settings as a base and we modified it until she could start seeing images.”

“Isn’t that dangerous, toying with her mind like that?”

“Nah… it just wouldn’t work. We took it slow. There were plenty of safeguards.”

Seb leaned back and glared. He wasn’t sure if he believed Eni, given how reckless she could be, but if she’d been injured, Syn or Sister Mischa would have informed him. “Okay… so once you got her loaded up inside the Dream Theater, what happened then?”

“We would show her a picture of something basic, like a cup. Then we would have her draw out the nakai word for that. After a few hours, Syn managed to pick up on patterns within the nakai language.”

“So, this is her building the dictionary?” Seb asked, pointing up at the scrolling symbols on the screen.

“Yup! Based on our timeline, we should have version one built in the next few hours.”

“What about the spoken language?”

“Way ahead of you. That’s our version two. Version one is just so we can start interpreting the data off of your glove’s storage. Version two is full communication with Iris. When she was in the Dream Theater, we pulled the brain signals it read from her mind. With that data and the dictionary, Syn and I believe we should be able to build her a dedicated comm device which will interpret her telepathic signals, convert them into spoken word, and then broadcast them to everyone’s translation implants.”

“Seems like you both have been busy as well.”

Eni pointed to the nearby trashcan full of empty energy pouches. “Yeah… you can say that.”

“Did you manage to speak with Vlad about the Yorion data you managed to pull?”

“No, I was out when we dropped out of FTL. Then we jumped right back in.”`

“That’s right. Okay, try to prioritize it once we reach Timura Outpost. We need the credits to rebuild the ship.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. Speaking of… you need to talk to the princess about our back pay. She still owes us millions.”

Seb sighed and nodded. “I know. I planned on speaking with her after I spoke with you.”

“You know she’s been staying in your room, don’t you?”

“Syn said something about that.”

“The balls on her,” Eni said with a clenched jaw. “If you need me to help kick her out, just say the word.”

“I’m trying to maintain the peace, not start another war on my ship.”

Eni shrugged. “The offer stands.”

Seb took a step forward, bent down, and kissed Eni on the head before rubbing his hand in her hair. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll be in here if you need anything.”

Seb waved as he exited the door. He made his way back to the elevator. After hitting the button for his floor, he used the time readying himself for what he figured would not be a simple conversation with the princess. He could see it going two ways: either she would stand in the doorway, waiting for him, or she would be lying in the bed, legs spread.